‘The Last of Us’ Star Young Mazino on Jesse’s Evolution After Show’s ‘Exceptionally Brutal’ Death

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 3.

Sunday’s episode of “The Last of Us” saw the inhabitants of Jackson picking up the pieces after the infected horde battle — and fiercely debating whether to go after Abby and her crew for murdering Joel (Pedro Pascal) in cold blood.

Young Mazino, who plays Jesse in the HBO adaptation, told TheWrap he found Joel’s death “exceptionally brutal” to watch.

“I understand the nature of revenge and losing someone dear to you, but Abby really tortured and made it a gruesome, slow death, which I think was unnecessary. That’s just karma that Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) will reap for herself,” he explained. “It’s very emblematic of what happens in real life situations. There’s a lot of conflict going on around the world. Some things are very media-facing, some conflicts in other parts of the world are more obscure, but I can see how Joel’s death is a microcosm in the larger human condition issue. The nature of revenge is this diabolical thing that takes over one’s soul and and you get lost in the sauce, and the sauce is very red.”

He added that Joel’s death is a “harsh reminder” of what Tommy’s son Benjamin said back in Episode 1: “There are monsters outside of the gates.”

Episode 3 picks up three months after the tragic events, with Tommy (Gabriel Luna) leading rebuilding efforts alongside Jesse. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) has been released from the hospital after recovering from being kicked in the ribs at the end of Episode 2 and is hell bent on revenge against Abby. But others in the community are worried about risking more of their own in the name of vengeance, especially as Jackson is still vulnerable.

“Because Jesse has such a huge emphasis on community, he’s focused on rebuilding and helping Jackson get back to its feet,” Mazino said. “I think, if anything, more than ever, community becomes more valuable because it’s the only reason why those people are alive.”

Throughout the episode, it’s evident that Jesse has emerged as one of Jackson’s potential future leaders in the wake of Joel’s death. One example is a simple interaction between Tommy and Jesse in which the former lets the latter take over the task of hammering in a wood plank with a sledgehammer.

“I think in the background, Tommy has been mentoring Jesse. After that crazy, insane battle where Tommy’s face to face with a freaking bloater, I think that was a moment where Tommy is realizing everything he has to lose – his family. He’s much older in age, he almost lost everything and I think he wants nothing more than to just be around for his family and loved ones,” Mazino said. “He’s getting ready to pass on the torch to the next generation and I think that scene was a really cool example. If you notice, Tommy’s grabbing on his hands, he has some arthritis and he’s probably still not fully recovered from the events. So Jesse’s there waiting, strong, capable and ready, to take the mantle of responsibility.”

Despite Joel’s death being personal, Jesse is also put in a tough situation after being elevated to serve on Jackson’s council, which sets a meeting to receive community input and vote on whether to dedicate more resources towards going after Abby.

“He’s a stickler for the damn rules, so he’s not allowed to talk about the upcoming vote,” Mazino explained. “There’s a scene that got cut out where you find out he only joined the council because someone on the council got killed and he just was next up. So even though he’s somewhat reluctant about taking this job, he takes it seriously.”

When Ellie confronts him about the vote, Jesse declines to say whether he’ll support her or not, but instead gives her the advice to write her thoughts down, adding “no one wants to vote for anger.”

“He leaves it up to Ellie and he respects her feelings. He knows how close Ellie was to Joel and he respects that tremendously. And I think regardless of his vote, he cares more about his community’s vote. And if the community happens to vote yes, he’s going to get armed to the teeth and go hunting, and he’ll be all for it,” he continued. “But if the community votes no, he’s going to also want to respect that. Jesse has that conflict where he cares about his friends tremendously and yet he has to put the community first. And the death of one person does not outweigh the safety of the entire community.”

Mazino adds that Jesse serves as a “reflection or bounce off of Ellie’s choices.”

“Ellie is hell bent on revenge and all she can think about is revenge. And Jesse — although he’s affected tremendously by the events — is choosing to look towards the light and towards the people that survived, and maintaining that,” Mazino said. “That’s a perfect Jesse response: to be level headed, to counter losses and rebuild and strengthen the interior of what you have that’s precious to you and maintaining that strength and resolution in the face of disaster.”

In addition to his thoughts on Episode 3, Mazino opened up about the pressure of playing a character from a popular video game franchise and finding the balance between honoring the source material and making the character of Jesse his own.

“I did my best to train physically and get the physicality and then I trust in the process. I trust in the writing, I trust in directors. And then I give them my take on it and we’ll narrow it down on the day and then I see later in post, in Final Cut, which takes they go with and see the character that they end up building,” he said. “Regardless of what’s seen, I try to provide a different range of emotional responses or different choices, and then they narrow it down to what they what they like. So I trust the process. The final result is huge amalgamation of a lot of different things and so for me as an actor, I just do my best to prepare physically.”

He acknowledged that some of the online discourse towards both the show and its source material can be “quite vicious and rabid” and “very mean.”

“I just try to block out the white noise and focus on the things that I can change and am able to bring to it. And then the rest of it, I just let Jesus take the wheel, I suppose — 0r Craig Mazin in this situation,” he said. “I hope the fans of the game are happy with my portrayal and my take on it and then I hope that also the people who haven’t played the game will like the character.”

He also reflected on the experience of working on Season 2 and the key lesson he learned from his co-stars that he plans to take with him into future dramatic projects.

“I noticed, especially between Isabella Merced and Bella Ramsey, they had this big switch. Regardless of what kind of heavy scene we were doing, outside of the scene, they would be so light and there was a lot of levity and jokes and laughter. Meanwhile, I’m like, ‘This is heavy shit.’ I’m brooding in the corner,” he said. “But I realized I’m just using up all my fuel when we’re not even rolling. It’s important to drop into it.

“There’s a pacing that I feel like I need to work on when I do more dramatic things, because it’s not sustainable to hold on to a heavy, heavy emotion for 12, 14, 16 hours a day. So I’m learning, I was taking a lot of notes, it was like scene study for me, to be honest,” he continued. “I just can’t wait to work on something similar, or Season 3, to put that to the test. But yeah, what I learned was less brooding. Save the brooding for the scene and chill out.”

“The Last of Us” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and streams on Max.

The post ‘The Last of Us’ Star Young Mazino on Jesse’s Evolution After Show’s ‘Exceptionally Brutal’ Death appeared first on TheWrap.